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123-471: According to Buswell, the Vajrasamadhi-sutra is thought to be an apocryphal scripture written by a Korean monk around 685 CE. Hagiograpic accounts claim a supernatural origin for the text: when a Silla king sent an envoy to China in order to find medicine for his sick queen, the party was taken to bottom of the sea by a dragon king who entrusted the text to them, saying the text should be arranged by

246-711: A priest , the sacrificial bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ. The Virgin Mary is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the God-bearer and honoured in devotions . The Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch—except for some breaks of communion such as the Photian schism or the Acacian schism — shared communion with the Church of Rome until

369-636: A sect or a denomination but simply continuing the Christian church , and, despite their varied origins, by adherence to the Byzantine rite ". Those churches are negatively defined by their rejection of papal immediate and universal supremacy . The seven ecumenical councils recognised by the Eastern Orthodox churches are: Nicaea I , Constantinople I , Ephesus , Chalcedon , Constantinople II , Constantinople III , and Nicaea II . Those churches consider

492-654: A 14th-century Christian Humanist, had declared in his biblical translation that "whatever book is in the Old Testament besides these twenty-five shall be set among the apocrypha, that is, without authority or belief." Nevertheless, his translation of the Bible included the apocrypha and the Epistle of the Laodiceans . Martin Luther did not class apocryphal books as being scripture, but in

615-610: A designation for the universality of the Christian Church, centred around Christ. Therefore, the Eastern Orthodox notion of catholicity is not centred around any singular see, unlike the Catholic Church which has one earthly centre. Due to the influence of the Catholic Church in the west, where the English language itself developed, the words "catholic" and "catholicity" are sometimes used to refer to that church specifically. However,

738-660: A dispute about the relation between the divine and human natures of Jesus . Eventually this led to each group anathematising the other. Those that remained in communion with the other patriarchs (by accepting the Council of Chalcedon) are known today as the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria , where the adjective "Greek" refers to their ties to the Greek-speaking culture of the Byzantine Empire. Those who disagreed with

861-642: A fusion of all pre-existing Mahayana ideas with the Vinaya precepts that work together to give a complete system of Buddhist meditation . The aim of the text appears to be the synthesis of Chan Buddhism , which had just been introduced to Korea, with already established Huayan Buddhism . The text includes quotations of Bodhidharma and references to the East Mountain Teachings of Daoxin and Hongren . The author may have been attempting to fuse these disparate Chan traditions. The text also includes elements of

984-522: A major change in meaning throughout the centuries. The word apocrypha in its ancient Christian usage originally meant a text read in private, rather than in public church settings. In English, it later came to have a sense of the esoteric, suspicious, or heretical, largely because of the Protestant interpretation of the usefulness of non-canonical texts. The word apocryphal ( ἀπόκρυφος ) was first applied to writings that were kept secret because they were

1107-587: A separate section. Luther did not include the deuterocanonical books in his Old Testament, terming them "Apocrypha, that are books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are useful and good to read." The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts four other books into its canon than what are contained in the Catholic canon: Psalm 151 , the Prayer of Manasseh , 3 Maccabees , and 1 Esdras . The status of

1230-615: A special way to honour the saint on whose day they received the sacrament of baptism . It is the most solemn day of the year for all Serbs of the Orthodox faith and has played a role of vital importance in the history of the Serbian people. Slava remains a celebration of the conversion of the Serbian people, which the church blessed and proclaimed a church institution. The missionaries to the East and South Slavs had great success in part because they used

1353-615: A spread of canonical texts similar to the Ethiopian Orthodox Christians . During the Apostolic Age many Jewish texts of Hellenistic origin existed within Judaism and were frequently used by Christians. Patristic authorities frequently recognized these books as important to the emergence of Christianity, but the inspired authority and value of the apocrypha remained widely disputed. Christians included several of these books in

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1476-476: Is also defined in the Coptic liturgy, where it is mentioned "He made it [his humanity] one with his divinity without mingling, without confusion and without alteration", and "His divinity parted not from his humanity for a single moment nor a twinkling of an eye." They do not accept the teachings of Eutyches , or Eutychianism . Both the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches formally believe themselves to be

1599-511: Is based on the Scriptures and holy tradition , which incorporates the dogmatic decrees of the seven ecumenical councils , and the teaching of the Church Fathers . The church teaches that it is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission , and that its bishops are the successors of Christ's apostles . It maintains that it practises

1722-606: Is defined as the Eastern Christians which recognise the seven ecumenical councils and usually are in communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate , the Patriarchate of Alexandria , the Patriarchate of Antioch , and the Patriarchate of Jerusalem . The Eastern Orthodox churches "are defined positively by their adherence to the dogmatic definitions of the seven [ecumenical] councils, by the strong sense of not being

1845-504: Is expressed most fundamentally in scripture and worship, and the latter most essentially through baptism and in the Divine Liturgy . The lines of even this test can blur, however, when differences that arise are not due to doctrine, but to recognition of jurisdiction. As the Eastern Orthodox Church has spread into the west and over the world, the church as a whole has yet to sort out all the inter-jurisdictional issues that have arisen in

1968-587: Is in English Orthodoxy , while the Georgians use the title Martlmadidebeli . The term "Eastern Church" (the geographic east in the East–West Schism) has been used to distinguish it from western Christendom (the geographic West, which at first came to designate the Catholic communion, later also the various Protestant and Anglican branches). "Eastern" is used to indicate that the highest concentrations of

2091-504: Is monophysite and prefers the term " miaphysite ", to denote the "united" nature of Jesus (two natures united into one) consistent with Cyril's theology: "The term union ... signifies the concurrence in one reality of those things which are understood to be united" and "the Word who is ineffably united with it in a manner beyond all description" ( Cyril of Alexandria , On the Unity of Christ ). This

2214-516: Is practised by a vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox church. In keeping with the church's teaching on universality and with the Nicene Creed, Eastern Orthodox authorities such as Raphael of Brooklyn have insisted that the full name of the church has always included the term " Catholic ", as in "Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church". The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church

2337-413: Is recorded from the late 16th century, then taking on the popular meaning of "false," "spurious," "bad," or "heretical." It may be used for any book which might have scriptural claims but which does not appear in the canon accepted by the author. A related term for non-canonical apocryphal texts whose authorship seems incorrect is pseudepigrapha , a term that means " false attribution ". In Christianity,

2460-454: Is the "Orthodox Catholic Church". It is the name by which the church refers to itself and which is issued in its liturgical or canonical texts. Eastern Orthodox theologians refer to the church as Catholic. This name and longer variants containing "Catholic" are also recognised and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Eastern Orthodox writers. The catechism of Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow published in

2583-602: Is the primary religious denomination in Russia , Ukraine , Romania , Greece , Belarus , Serbia , Bulgaria , Georgia , Moldova , North Macedonia , Cyprus , Montenegro , one of the main religious sects in Albania , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Kosovo , Lebanon , a significant sect in Syria , Iraq and other countries in the Middle East . Roughly half of Eastern Orthodox Christians live in

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2706-746: The Apostles travelled extensively throughout the Roman Empire , including Asia Minor, establishing churches in major communities , with the first churches appearing in Jerusalem and the Holy Land , then in Antioch , Ethiopia , Egypt , Rome , Alexandria , Athens , Thessalonica , Illyricum , and Byzantium , which centuries later would become prominent as the New Rome . Christianity encountered considerable resistance in

2829-681: The Assumption of Moses and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs , which are included in no biblical canon. The establishment of a largely settled uniform canon was a process of centuries, and what the term canon (as well as apocrypha ) precisely meant also saw development. The canonical process took place with believers recognizing writings as being inspired by God from known or accepted origins, subsequently being followed by official affirmation of what had become largely established through

2952-538: The Catholic Church . In Hungarian, the church is still commonly called "Eastern Greek" ( Hungarian : Görögkeleti ). This identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Eastern Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. In addition, struggles between Rome and Constantinople to control parts of Southeastern Europe resulted in

3075-502: The Catholic Church . Nevertheless, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as primus inter pares ("first among equals"), a title formerly given to the patriarch of Rome. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe . Eastern Orthodox theology

3198-686: The Christianisation of Bulgaria in 864, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius in Bulgaria , the most important being Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Preslav , were of great importance to the Orthodox faith in the First Bulgarian Empire . In a short time they managed to prepare and instruct the future Bulgarian clergy into the biblical texts and in AD 870 the Fourth Council of Constantinople granted

3321-688: The East–West Schism in 1054. The 1054 schism was the culmination of mounting theological, political, and cultural disputes, particularly over the authority of the pope , between those churches. Before the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the Church of the East also shared in this communion, as did the various Oriental Orthodox Churches before the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, all separating primarily over differences in Christology . The Eastern Orthodox Church

3444-664: The Nicene Creed , and referred to in Orthodox worship, e.g. in the litany of the catechumens in the Divine Liturgy. With the mutual excommunications of the East–West Schism in 1054, the churches in Rome and Constantinople each viewed the other as having departed from the true church , leaving a smaller but still-catholic church in place. Each retained the "Catholic" part of its title, the " Roman Catholic Church" (or Catholic Church) on

3567-530: The Orthodox Catholic Church , and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church , is the second-largest Christian church , with approximately 230 million baptised members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods . The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the pope of

3690-626: The Quinisext Council "shar[es] the ecumenical authority of Constantinople III. "By an agreement that appears to be in place in the [Eastern] Orthodox world, possibly the council held in 879 to vindicate the Patriarch Photius will at some future date be recognized as the eighth [ecumenical] council" by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Western Rite Orthodoxy exists both outside and inside Eastern Orthodoxy . Within Eastern Orthodoxy, it

3813-673: The Second Temple period , not accepted as sacred manuscripts when the Hebrew Bible was canonized . Some of these books are considered sacred by some Christians , and are included in their versions of the Old Testament . The Jewish apocrypha is distinctive from the New Testament apocrypha and biblical apocrypha as it is the only one of these collections that works within a Jewish theological framework. Although Orthodox Jews believe in

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3936-529: The Syriac Orthodox Church from the Byzantine Patriarchate of Antioch . Those who disagreed with the Council of Chalcedon are sometimes called " Oriental Orthodox " to distinguish them from the " Eastern Orthodox ", who accepted the Council of Chalcedon. Oriental Orthodox are also sometimes referred to as "non-Chalcedonians", or "anti-Chalcedonians". The Oriental Orthodox Church denies that it

4059-659: The divine liturgy , other liturgical texts, and the Gospels along with some other scriptural texts into local languages; with time, as these translations were copied by speakers of other dialects, the hybrid literary language Church Slavonic was created. Originally sent to convert the Slavs of Great Moravia , Cyril and Methodius were forced to compete with Frankish missionaries from the Roman diocese; their disciples were driven out of Great Moravia in AD 886 and emigrated to Bulgaria . After

4182-465: The " Nestorian " churches resulted from the reaction of the Council of Ephesus (431), which are the earliest surviving Eastern Christian churches that keep the faith of only the first two ecumenical councils, i.e., the First Council of Nicaea (325) and the First Council of Constantinople (381) as legitimate. "Nestorian" is an outsider's term for a tradition that predated the influence of Nestorius ,

4305-468: The 19th century is titled: The Longer Catechism of the Orthodox, Catholic, Eastern Church ( Russian : Пространный христианский катехизис православныя, кафолическия восточныя Церкви ). From ancient times through the first millennium, Greek was the most prevalent shared language in the demographic regions where the Byzantine Empire flourished, and Greek, being the language in which the New Testament

4428-530: The 19th century) are treated as a separate category of literature from the "official" Jataka stories that have been more-or-less formally canonized from at least the 5th century—as attested to in ample epigraphic and archaeological evidence, such as extant illustrations in bas relief from ancient temple walls. The Jewish apocrypha, known in Hebrew as הספרים החיצונים ( Sefarim Hachizonim: "the external books"), are books written in large part by Jews , especially during

4551-512: The 530s the Church of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) was built in Constantinople under Emperor Justinian I . Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture , Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later. Being the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople , it remained

4674-813: The Anglican Churches. Anabaptists use the Luther Bible , which contains the intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocrypha". The Anglican Communion accepts the Protestant Apocrypha "for instruction in life and manners, but not for the establishment of doctrine (Article VI in the Thirty-Nine Articles )", and many "lectionary readings in The Book of Common Prayer are taken from

4797-401: The Apocrypha are regularly appointed to be read in the daily, Sunday, and special services of Morning and Evening Prayer. There are altogether 111 such lessons in the latest revised American Prayer Book Lectionary [The books used are: II Esdras, Tobit, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Three Holy Children, and I Maccabees.] The position of the Church is best summarized in the words of Article Six of

4920-455: The Apocrypha as non-canonical books that are useful for instruction. The word's origin is the Medieval Latin adjective apocryphus (secret, or non-canonical) from the Greek adjective ἀπόκρυφος , apokryphos , (private) from the verb ἀποκρύπτειν , apokryptein (to hide away). It comes from Greek and is formed from the combination of apo (away) and kryptein (hide or conceal). The word apocrypha has undergone

5043-481: The Apocrypha", with these lessons being "read in the same ways as those from the Old Testament". The first Methodist liturgical book, The Sunday Service of the Methodists , employs verses from the Apocrypha, such as in the Eucharistic liturgy. The Protestant Apocrypha contains three books (1 Esdras, 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh) that are accepted by many Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches as canonical, but are regarded as non-canonical by

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5166-409: The Apocryphal books, the Book of Enoch was never referenced by Jesus. The genuineness and inspiration of Enoch were believed in by the writer of the Epistle of Barnabas , Irenaeus , Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria and many others of the early church . The Epistles of Paul and the Gospels also show influences from the Book of Jubilees , which is part of the Ethiopian canon, as well as

5289-497: The Book of Tobit in services of Holy Matrimony. According to the Orthodox Anglican Church : On the other hand, the Anglican Communion emphatically maintains that the Apocrypha is part of the Bible and is to be read with respect by her members. Two of the hymns used in the American Prayer Book office of Morning Prayer, the Benedictus es and Benedicite, are taken from the Apocrypha. One of the offertory sentences in Holy Communion comes from an apocryphal book (Tob. 4: 8–9). Lessons from

5412-456: The Bulgarians the oldest organised autocephalous Slavic Orthodox Church, which shortly thereafter became Patriarchate. The success of the conversion of the Bulgarians facilitated the conversion of the East Slavs . A major event in this effort was the development of the Cyrillic script in Bulgaria , at the Preslav Literary School in the ninth century; this script, along with the liturgical Old Church Slavonic , also called Old Bulgarian ,

5535-402: The Catholic Council of Trent reconfirmed the canon of Augustine, dating to the second and third centuries, declaring "He is also to be anathema who does not receive these entire books, with all their parts, as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church, and are found in the ancient editions of the Latin Vulgate , as sacred and canonical." The whole of the books in question, with

5658-494: The Catholic Church and are therefore not included in modern Catholic Bibles. In the 1800s, the British and Foreign Bible Society did not regularly publish the intertestamental section in its Bibles, citing the cost of printing the Apocrypha in addition to the Old Testament and New Testament as a major factor; this legacy came to characterize English-language Bibles in Great Britain and the Americas, unlike in Europe where Protestant Bibles are printed with 80 books in three sections:

5781-484: The Catholic Church include Tobit, Judith, Baruch, Sirach, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom and additions to Esther, Daniel, and Baruch. The Book of Enoch is included in the biblical canon of the Oriental Orthodox churches of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Epistle of Jude alludes to a story in the book of Enoch, and some believe the use of this book also appears in the four gospels and 1 Peter . While Jesus and his disciples sometimes used phrases also featured in some of

5904-420: The Catholic Church, affirmed by the Council of Rome (AD 382) and later reaffirmed by the Council of Trent (1545–63); all of the books of the Protestant Apocrypha are considered canonical by the Eastern Orthodox Church and are referred to as anagignoskomena per the Synod of Jerusalem (1672). To this date, scripture readings from the Apocrypha are included in the lectionaries of the Lutheran Churches and

6027-435: The Catholic Church. The first known use of the phrase "the catholic Church" ( he katholike ekklesia ) occurred in a letter written about AD 110 from one Greek church to another ( Ignatius of Antioch to the Smyrnaeans ). The letter states: "Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, there is the universal [katholike] Church." Thus, almost from the beginning, Christians referred to

6150-425: The Christian Church as the "one, holy, catholic (from the Greek καθολική, 'according to the whole, universal' ) and apostolic Church". The Eastern Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same early church. A number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim: the Roman Catholic Church , the Anglican Communion , the Assyrian Church , and the Oriental Orthodox . In

6273-428: The Christian Church is "universal", unseparated, and comprehensive, including all who share that faith. Orthodox bishop Kallistos Ware has called that "simple Christianity". That is the sense of early and patristic usage wherein the church usually refers to itself as the "Catholic Church", whose faith is the "Orthodox faith". It is also the sense within the phrase "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church", found in

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6396-437: The Church of the West, the Catholic Church, and the Eastern Byzantine churches, now the Orthodox. There were doctrinal issues like the filioque clause and the authority of the Roman Pope involved in the split, but these were greatly exacerbated by political factors of both Church and state, and by cultural and linguistic differences between Latins and Greeks. Regarding papal supremacy , the Eastern half grew disillusioned with

6519-415: The Eastern Orthodox Church presence remain in the eastern part of the Christian world, although it is growing worldwide. Orthodox Christians throughout the world use various ethnic or national jurisdictional titles, or more inclusively, the title "Eastern Orthodox", "Orthodox Catholic", or simply "Orthodox". What unites Orthodox Christians is the catholic faith as carried through holy tradition . That faith

6642-420: The Eastern Orthodox position. They are the Synods of Constantinople, in 1484 , 1583, 1755 , 1819, and 1872 , the Synod of Iași in 1642, and the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 . Another council convened in June 2016 to discuss many modern phenomena, other Christian confessions, Eastern Orthodoxy's relation with other religions and fasting disciplines. Constantinople is generally considered to be

6765-422: The Eastern Orthodox view, the Assyrians and Orientals left the Orthodox Church in the years following the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) and the Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451), respectively, in their refusal to accept those councils' Christological definitions. Similarly, the churches in Rome and Constantinople separated in an event known as the East–West Schism , traditionally dated to

6888-449: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. There are additional Christian churches in the east that are in communion with neither the Catholic Church nor the Eastern Orthodox Church, who tend to be distinguished by the category named " Oriental Orthodox ". While the Eastern Orthodox Church continues officially to call itself "Catholic", for reasons of universality , the common title of "Eastern Orthodox Church" avoids casual confusion with

7011-451: The Emperor's Heavenly Mandate . Examples of these include talismans, charts, writs, tallies, and registers. The first examples were stones, jade pieces, bronze vessels and weapons, but came to include talismans and magic diagrams. From their roots in Zhou era China (1066–256 BC), these items came to be surpassed in value by texts by the Han dynasty (206 BC – AD 220). Most of these texts have been destroyed as Emperors, particularly during

7134-459: The Fathers had appointed to be read to catechumens for edification and instruction; these are the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Esther, Judith, Tobias, the Didache, or Doctrine of the Apostles, and the Shepherd of Hermas. All others are apocrypha and the inventions of heretics (Festal Epistle for 367)". Nevertheless, none of these constituted indisputable definitions, and significant scholarly doubts and disagreements about

7257-432: The German Luther Bible (1534) the apocrypha are published in a separate section from the other books, although the Lutheran and Anglican lists are different. Anabaptists use the Luther Bible , which contains the intertestamental books; Amish wedding ceremonies include "the retelling of the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the Apocrypha". The fathers of Anabaptism, such as Menno Simons , quoted "them [the Apocrypha] with

7380-441: The Han dynasty, collected these legitimizing objects and proscribed, forbade and burnt nearly all of them to prevent them from falling into the hands of political rivals. Apocrypha was also applied to writings that were hidden not because of their divinity but because of their questionable value to the church. The early Christian theologian Origen , in his Commentaries on Matthew , distinguishes between writings that were read by

7503-509: The Hebrew canon (the protocanon ) excluded from the canon all of the Old Testament not found there. This view is reflected in the canon of Melito of Sardis , and in the prefaces and letters of Jerome. A third view was that the books were not as valuable as the canonical scriptures of the Hebrew collection, but were of value for moral uses, as introductory texts for new converts from paganism , and to be read in congregations. They were referred to as " ecclesiastical " works by Rufinus . In 1546,

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7626-483: The Holy Spirit maintains the unity and consistency of holy tradition to preserve the integrity of the faith within the church, as given in the scriptural promises. Orthodoxy asserts that its shared beliefs, and its theology, exist within holy tradition and cannot be separated from it, and that their meaning is not expressed in mere words alone; that doctrine cannot be understood unless it is prayed; and that it must also be lived in order to be prayed, that without action,

7749-413: The Jews as part of the Hebrew Bible canon and the Apocrypha is not part of the historical Jewish canon . Early church fathers such as Athanasius , Melito , Origen , and Cyril of Jerusalem , spoke against the canonicity of much or all of the apocrypha, but the most weighty opposition was the fourth century Catholic scholar Jerome who preferred the Hebrew canon, whereas Augustine and others preferred

7872-404: The KJV bible until 1947). Eastern Orthodox Church This is an accepted version of this page Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: The Eastern Orthodox Church , officially

7995-412: The Levant. A number of influential schools of thought had arisen, particularly the Alexandrian and Antiochian philosophical approaches. Other groups, such as the Arians , had also managed to gain influence. However, their positions caused theological conflicts within the church, thus prompting the Emperor Constantine to call for a great ecumenical synod in order to define the church's position against

8118-449: The Mahayana , which was in fact written over a hundred years earlier. The text includes quotations of Bodhidharma , who lived in the 6th century CE, and references to the East Mountain Teachings of Daoxin and Hongren , both of whom lived in the 7th century. The aim of the text appears to be the synthesis of newly introduced Chan Buddhism with already established Huayan Buddhism . The Adamantine Absorption Sutra presents itself as

8241-446: The Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament. In the present-day, "English Bibles with the Apocrypha are becoming more popular again", usually being printed as intertestamental books . The Revised Common Lectionary , in use by most mainline Protestants including Methodists and Moravians, lists readings from the Apocrypha in the liturgical calendar , although alternate Old Testament scripture lessons are provided. The status of

8364-412: The Old Testament, Apocrypha, and New Testament; examples include the " Matthew's Bible (1537), the Great Bible (1539), the Geneva Bible (1560), the Bishop's Bible (1568), and the King James Bible (1611)". Fourteen out of eighty biblical books comprise the Protestant Apocrypha, first published as such in Luther's Bible (1534). Many of these texts are considered canonical Old Testament books by

8487-430: The Old and New Testaments. They are also sometimes called "intertestamental" by religious groups who do not recognize Hellenistic Judaism as belonging with either Jewish or Christian testaments. Slightly varying collections of apocryphal, deuterocanonical or intertestamental books of the Bible form part of the Catholic , Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox canons. The deuterocanonical or intertestamental books of

8610-426: The Pope's centralisation of power, as well as his blatant attempts of excluding the Eastern half in regard to papal approvals. It had previously been the case that the emperor would have a say when a new Pope was elected, but towards the high Middle Ages, the Christians in Rome were slowly consolidating power and removing Byzantine influence. However, even before this exclusionary tendency from the West, well before 1054,

8733-475: The Protestant canon (such as listed in the Westminster Confession of 1646), which has been well established for centuries, with many today supporting the use of the Apocrypha and others contending against the Apocrypha using various arguments. The adjective apocryphal is commonly used in modern English to refer to any text or story considered to be of dubious veracity or authority, although it may contain some moral truth. In this broader metaphorical sense,

8856-492: The Roman Empire , mostly because its adherents refused to comply with the demands of the Roman state—often even when their lives were threatened—by offering sacrifices to the pagan gods. Despite persecution, skepticism, and initial social stigma, the Christian Church spread, particularly following the conversion of Emperor Constantine I in AD 312. By the fourth century , Christianity was present in numerous regions well beyond

8979-552: The Thirty-nine Articles: "In the name of Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority there was never any doubt in the Church... And the other Books (as Hierome [St. Jerome] saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine. Though Protestant Bibles historically include 80 books , 66 of these form

9102-458: The accepted canon of scripture, some of which might be of doubtful authorship or authenticity. In Christianity , the word apocryphal (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings that were to be read privately rather than in the public context of church services. Apocrypha were edifying Christian works that were not always initially included as canonical scripture . The adjective "apocryphal", meaning of doubtful authenticity, mythical, fictional,

9225-571: The apocryphal writings in dispute, with little distinction made between them and the rest of the Old Testament . Others argue that the Septuagint of the first century did not contain these books but they were added later by Christians. The earliest extant manuscripts of the Septuagint are from the fourth century, and suffer greatly from a lack of uniformity as regards containing apocryphal books, and some also contain books classed as pseudepigrapha , from which texts were cited by some early writers in

9348-476: The areas where they arose, before they grew significant enough to require an ecumenical council. There are seven councils authoritatively recognised as ecumenical by the Eastern Orthodox Church: There are also two other councils which are considered ecumenical by some Eastern Orthodox: In addition to these councils, there have been a number of other significant councils meant to further define

9471-571: The books that the Catholic Church terms Deuterocanonicals (second canon) and Protestantism refers to as Apocrypha has been an issue of disagreement that preceded the Reformation. Many believe that the pre-Christian-era Jewish translation (into Greek) of holy scriptures known as the Septuagint , a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures originally compiled around 280 BC, originally included

9594-578: The canons of the Christian Bibles , calling them the "apocrypha" or the "hidden books". In the sixteenth century, during the Protestant Reformation , the canonical validity of the intertestamental books was challenged and fourteen books were classed in 80 book Protestant Bibles as an intertestamental section called the Apocrypha, which straddles the Old Testament and New Testament. Prior to 1629, all English-language Protestant Bibles included

9717-695: The centre and the "cradle of Orthodox Christian civilisation ". From the mid-5th century to the early 13th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe. Eastern Christian culture reached its golden age during the high point of the Byzantine Empire and continued to flourish in Ukraine and Russia, after the fall of Constantinople . Numerous autocephalous churches were established in Europe: Greece, Georgia, Ukraine, as well as in Russia and Asia. In

9840-414: The church and of the church by God), especially in worship, yield the pair "correct belief" and "true worship". Together, these express the core of a fundamental teaching about the inseparability of belief and worship and their role in drawing the church together with Christ. All Slavic churches use the title Pravoslavie ( Cyrillic : Православие ), meaning "correctness of glorification", to denote what

9963-430: The churches and apocryphal writings: γραφὴ μὴ φερομένη μέν ἒν τοῖς κοινοῖς καὶ δεδημοσιευμένοις βιβλίοις εἰκὸς δ' ὅτι ἒν ἀποκρύφοις φερομένη ( writing not found in the common and published books on one hand [and] actually found in the secret ones on the other ). The meaning of αποκρυφος is here practically equivalent to "excluded from the public use of the church" and prepares the way for an even less favourable use of

10086-519: The continuation of the true church. In the ninth and tenth centuries, Christianity made great inroads into pagan Europe, including Bulgaria (864) and later Kievan Rus' (988). This work was made possible by Cyril and Methodius of Thessaloniki , two brothers chosen by Byzantine emperor Michael III to fulfil the request of Rastislav of Moravia for teachers who could minister to the Moravians in their own language. Cyril and Methodius began translating

10209-451: The conversion of some churches to the Catholic Church, which then also used "Greek Catholic" to indicate their continued use of the Byzantine rites. Today, only a minority of Eastern Orthodox adherents use Greek as the language of worship. "Eastern", then, indicates the geographical element in the church's origin and development, while "Orthodox" indicates the faith, as well as communion with

10332-436: The deuterocanonicals remains unchanged in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, though there is a difference in number of these books between these two branches of Christianity. Some authorities began using term deuterocanonical to refer to this traditional intertestamental collection as books of "the second canon". These books are often seen as helping to explain the theological and cultural transitions that took place between

10455-615: The ecumenical Council of Trent officially ("infallibly") declared these books (called "deuterocanonical" by Catholics) to be part of the canon in April, 1546 A.D. While the Protestant Reformers rejected the parts of the canon that were not part of the Hebrew Bible , they included the four New Testament books Luther considered of doubtful canonicity along with the Apocrypha in his non-binding Luther's canon (although most were separately included in his Bible, as they were in some editions of

10578-463: The exception of 1 Esdras and 2 Esdras and the Prayer of Manasseh , were declared canonical at Trent. The Protestants, in comparison, were diverse in their opinion of the deuterocanon early on. Some considered them divinely inspired, others rejected them. Lutherans and Anglicans retained the books as Christian intertestamental readings and a part of the Bible (in a section called "Apocrypha"), but no doctrine should be based on them. John Wycliffe ,

10701-737: The exclusive canonization of the current 24 books in the Hebrew Bible , they also consider the Oral Torah , which they believe was handed down from Moses , to be authoritative. Some argue that the Sadducees , unlike the Pharisees but like the Samaritans , seem to have maintained an earlier and smaller number of texts as canonical, preferring to hold to only what was written in the Law of Moses (the Torah ), making most of

10824-465: The expansion, leaving some areas of doubt about what is proper church governance. Moreover, as in the ancient church persecutions, the aftermath of persecutions of Christians in communist nations has complicated some issues of governance that have yet to be completely resolved. All members of the Eastern Orthodox Church profess the same faith, regardless of race or nationality, jurisdiction or local custom, or century of birth. Holy tradition encompasses

10947-515: The findings of the Council of Chalcedon were the majority in Egypt. Today they are known as the Coptic Orthodox Church , having maintained a separate patriarchate. The Coptic Orthodox Church is currently the largest Christian church in Egypt and in the whole Middle East. There was also a similar, albeit smaller scale, split in Syria ( Patriarchate of Antioch ), which resulted in the separation of

11070-535: The fourteen books of the Apocrypha as being non-canonical, but useful for reading "for example of life and instruction of manners": a view that continues today throughout the Lutheran Church , the worldwide Anglican Communion , among many other denominations, such as the Methodist Churches and Quaker Yearly Meetings . Liturgically, the Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches have a scripture reading from

11193-471: The fourth century onwards led to the calling of ecumenical councils . In the Orthodox Church, an ecumenical council is the supreme authority that can be invoked to resolve contested issues of the faith. As such, these councils have been held to resolve the most important theological matters that came to be disputed within the Christian Church. Many lesser disagreements were resolved through local councils in

11316-539: The growing, often widely diverging, philosophical and theological interpretations of Christianity. He made it possible for this council to meet not only by providing a location, but by offering to pay for the transportation of all the existing bishops of the church. Most modern Christian churches regard this synod, commonly called the First Council of Nicaea or more generally the First Ecumenical Council , as of major importance. Several doctrinal disputes from

11439-455: The issues go as deep as the schisms. The depth of this meaning in the Eastern Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word " Orthodox " itself, a union of Greek orthos ("straight", "correct", "true", "right") and doxa ("common belief", from the ancient verb δοκέω-δοκῶ which is translated "to believe", "to think", "to consider", "to imagine", "to assume"). The dual meanings of doxa , with "glory" or "glorification" (of God by

11562-455: The more prominent dictionary sense given for general use is still the one shared by other languages, implying breadth and universality, reflecting comprehensive scope. In a Christian context, the Christian Church, as identified with the original church founded by Christ and his apostles, is said to be catholic (or universal) in regard to its union with Christ in faith. Just as Christ is indivisible, so are union with him and faith in him, whereby

11685-447: The name " the Apocrypha " is applied to a particular set of books which, when they appear in a Bible, are sometimes placed between the Old and New Testaments in a section called "Apocrypha." The canonicity of such books took longer to determine. Various of these books are accepted by the Catholic Church , Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East , as deuterocanonical . Some Protestant traditions reject them outright; others regard

11808-466: The nature of the Apocrypha continued for centuries and even into Trent, which provided the first infallible definition of the Catholic canon in 1546. In the 16th century, the Protestant reformers challenged the canonicity of the books and partial-books found in the surviving Septuagint but not in the Masoretic Text . In response to this challenge, after the death of Martin Luther (February 8, 1546)

11931-455: The one hand, and the " Orthodox Catholic Church" on the other, each of which was defined in terms of inter-communion with either Rome or Constantinople. While the Eastern Orthodox Church recognises what it shares in common with other churches, including the Catholic Church, it sees catholicity in terms of complete union in communion and faith, with the Church throughout all time, and the sharing remains incomplete when not shared fully. Paul and

12054-586: The origin of which might lie in certain sections of the School of Antioch or via Nestorius' teachers Theodore of Mopsuestia or Diodore of Tarsus . The modern incarnation of the " Nestorian Church " is commonly referred to as "the Assyrian Church" or fully as the Assyrian Church of the East . The church in Egypt ( Patriarchate of Alexandria ) split into two groups following the Council of Chalcedon (451), over

12177-458: The original Christian faith, as passed down by holy tradition. Its patriarchates , descending from the pentarchy , and other autocephalous and autonomous churches, reflect a variety of hierarchical organisation . It recognises seven major sacraments , of which the Eucharist is the principal one, celebrated liturgically in synaxis . The church teaches that through consecration invoked by

12300-528: The people's native language rather than Greek , the predominant language of the Byzantine Empire, or Latin , as the Roman priests did. Perhaps the greatest legacy of their efforts is the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the largest of the Orthodox churches. In the 11th century, what was recognised as the Great Schism took place between Rome and Constantinople , which led to separation between

12423-564: The philosophy from the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana , specifically the notion of one mind that has an aspect of true thusness on the one hand and arising/ceasing on the other. This Mahayana -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Buddhist text -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Apocryphal Apocrypha are biblical or related writings not forming part of

12546-705: The post Eastern Bloc countries, mostly in Russia. The communities in the former Byzantine regions of North Africa , the Eastern Mediterranean are among the oldest Orthodox communities from the Middle East , which are decreasing due to forced migration driven by increased religious persecution . Eastern Orthodox communities outside Western Asia , Asia Minor , Caucasia and Eastern Europe , including those in North America , Western Europe , and Australia , have been formed through diaspora , conversions , and missionary activity. The Eastern Orthodox Church

12669-460: The prayer is idle, empty, and in vain, and therefore the theology of demons. The Eastern Orthodox Church considers itself to be both orthodox and catholic. The doctrine of the Catholicity of the Church , as derived from the Nicene Creed , is essential to Eastern Orthodox ecclesiology . The term Catholicity of the Church ( Greek Καθολικότης τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ) is used in its original sense, as

12792-647: The presently accepted canon, both Jewish and Christian, apocryphal in their eyes. Others believe that it is often mistakenly asserted that the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch (Torah). The Essenes in Judea and the Therapeutae in Egypt were said to have a secret literature (see Dead Sea scrolls ). Other traditions maintained different customs regarding canonicity. The Ethiopian Jews , for instance, seem to have retained

12915-428: The reason that many things are found in them corrupt and against the true faith handed down by the elders, it has pleased them that they not be given a place nor be admitted to authority." The Gelasian Decree (generally held now as being the work of an anonymous scholar between 519 and 553) refers to religious works by church fathers Eusebius , Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria as apocrypha. Augustine defined

13038-608: The same authority and nearly the same frequency as books of the Hebrew Bible" and the texts regarding the martyrdoms under Antiochus IV in 1 Maccabees and 2 Maccabees are held in high esteem by the Anabaptists, who faced persecution in their history. In Reformed editions (like the Westminster), readers were warned that these books were not "to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings". A milder distinction

13161-511: The second and later centuries as being scripture. While a few scholars conclude that the Jewish canon was the achievement of the Hasmonean dynasty, it is generally considered not to have been finalized until about 100 AD or somewhat later, at which time considerations of Greek language and beginnings of Christian acceptance of the Septuagint weighed against some of the texts. Some were not accepted by

13284-543: The study and debate of the writings. The first ecclesiastical decree on the Catholic Church's canonical books of the Sacred Scriptures is attributed to the Council of Rome (382), and is correspondent to that of Trent. Martin Luther , like Jerome , favored the Masoretic canon for the Old Testament, excluding apocryphal books in the Luther Bible as unworthy to be properly called scripture, but included most of them in

13407-469: The two are a number of writers whose veneration for these books is tempered by some perplexity as to their exact standing, and among those we note St. Thomas Aquinas. Few are found to unequivocally acknowledge their canonicity. The prevailing attitude of Western medieval authors is substantially that of the Greek Fathers. The wider Christian canon accepted by Augustine became the more established canon in

13530-470: The understandings and means by which that unity of faith is transmitted across boundaries of time, geography, and culture. It is a continuity that exists only inasmuch as it lives within Christians themselves. It is not static, nor an observation of rules, but rather a sharing of observations that spring both from within and also in keeping with others, even others who lived lives long past. The church proclaims

13653-518: The unknown monk Taean and commented on by Wonhyo . In reality the text was likely connected with the emergence of Seon in Korea, and if this is the case it would be only the second known Korean text in this tradition. Wonhyo wrote a commentary on the text shortly after its production called the Kumgang sammaegyong non in which he speculates that it may have been the inspiration for the Awakening of Faith in

13776-723: The vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered too profound or too sacred to be disclosed to anyone other than the initiated. For example, the disciples of the Gnostic Prodicus boasted that they possessed the secret ( ἀπόκρυφα ) books of Zoroaster . The term in general enjoyed high consideration among the Gnostics (see Acts of Thomas , pp. 10, 27, 44). Sinologist Anna Seidel refers to texts and even items produced by ancient Chinese sages as apocryphal and studied their uses during Six Dynasties China (AD 220–589). These artifacts were used as symbols legitimizing and guaranteeing

13899-545: The western Church after being promulgated for use in the Easter Letter of Athanasius (circa 372 A.D.), the Synod of Rome (382 A.D., but its Decretum Gelasianum is generally considered to be a much later addition ) and the local councils of Carthage and Hippo in north Africa (391 and 393 A.D). Athanasius called canonical all books of the Hebrew Bible including Baruch, while excluding Esther. He adds that "there are certain books which

14022-606: The wider (Greek) canon, with both having followers in the generations that followed. The Catholic Encyclopedia states as regards the Middle Ages, In the Latin Church, all through the Middle Ages [5th century to the 15th century] we find evidence of hesitation about the character of the deuterocanonicals. There is a current friendly to them, another one distinctly unfavourable to their authority and sacredness, while wavering between

14145-600: The word as meaning simply "obscurity of origin", implying that any book of unknown authorship or questionable authenticity would be considered apocryphal. Jerome in Prologus Galeatus declared that all books outside the Hebrew canon were apocryphal. In practice, Jerome treated some books outside the Hebrew canon as if they were canonical, and the Western Church did not accept Jerome's definition of apocrypha, instead retaining

14268-662: The word suggests a claim that is in the nature of folklore , factoid or urban legend . Apocryphal Jatakas of the Pāli Canon , such as those belonging to the Paññāsajātaka collection, have been adapted to fit local culture in certain Southeast Asian countries and have been retold with amendments to the plots to better reflect Buddhist morals. Within the Pali tradition, the apocryphal Jatakas of later composition (some dated even to

14391-465: The word's prior meaning. As a result, various church authorities labeled different books as apocrypha, treating them with varying levels of regard. Origen stated that "the canonical books, as the Hebrews have handed them down, are twenty-two". Clement and others cited some apocryphal books as "scripture", "divine scripture", "inspired", and the like. Teachers connected with Palestine and familiar with

14514-636: The word. In general use, the word apocrypha came to mean "of doubtful authenticity". This meaning also appears in Origen 's prologue to his commentary on the Song of Songs , of which only the Latin translation survives: De scripturis his, quae appellantur apocriphae, pro eo quod multa in iis corrupta et contra fidem veram inveniuntur a maioribus tradita non placuit iis dari locum nec admitti ad auctoritatem. "Concerning these scriptures, which are called apocryphal, for

14637-425: The world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Hagia Sophia has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world ", and architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilisation , and it is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture and is said to have "changed the history of architecture". There are

14760-493: The year 1054, although it was more a gradual process than a sudden break. To all these churches, the claim to catholicity (universality, oneness with the ancient Church) is important for multiple doctrinal reasons that have more bearing internally in each church than in their relation to the others, now separated in faith. The meaning of holding to a faith that is true is the primary reason why anyone's statement of which church split off from which other has any significance at all;

14883-491: Was declared official in Bulgaria in 893. The work of Cyril and Methodius and their disciples had a major impact on the Serbs as well. They accepted Christianity collectively along familial and tribal lines, a gradual process that occurred between the seventh and ninth centuries. In commemoration of their baptisms, each Serbian family or tribe began to celebrate an exclusively Serbian custom called Slava (patron saint) in

15006-731: Was expressed elsewhere, such as in the "argument" introducing them in the Geneva Bible , and in the Sixth Article of the Church of England , where it is said that "the other books the church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners," though not to establish doctrine. Among some Nonconformists , the term apocryphal began to take on extra or altered connotations: not just of dubious authenticity, but having spurious or false content, Protestants, being diverse in theological views, were not unanimous in adopting those meanings. Generally, Anabaptists and magisterial Protestants recognize

15129-524: Was written, was the primary liturgical language of the church. For this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as "Greek" (in contrast to the "Roman" or "Latin" church , which used a Latin translation of the Bible), even before the Great Schism of 1054. After 1054, "Greek Orthodox" or "Greek Catholic" marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople, much as "Catholic" did for communion with

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